2011 TC Research
Teachers College, Columbia University
Teachers College Columbia University

Research

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Kevin J. Dougherty

Professional Background

Educational Background

  • B.A., Washington University, Political Science.
  • M.A., Ph.D. Harvard University, Sociology.

Scholarly Interests

Higher education policy and reform.  K-12 educational policy and reform. The community college. College students. Sociology of education.

Prof. Dougherty's current research is focused on the origins and consequences of state accountability systems for higher education (particularly performance funding).  In the past, Professor Dougherty has done extensive research and writing on state policies affecting access to, and success in, community colleges by minority and low-income students; policies affecting immigrant student access to higher education; the historical origins and impact on students of community colleges; the role of higher education in economic and workforce development; and reform movements in elementary and secondary education (especially school choice, charter schools, and school standards).

Selected Publications

  • "Accounting for higher education accountability: Political origins of state performance funding for higher education” (with Rebecca S. Natow, Rachel Hare Bork, Sosanya M. Jones, and Blanca E. Vega). Teachers College Record 115 (1) (2013) 
  • “Popular but unstable: Explaining why state performance funding systems in the United States often do not persist” (with Rebecca S. Natow and Blanca E. Vega). Teachers College Record 114 (3) (March 2012).  
  • The Impacts of State Performance Funding Systems on Higher Education Institutions: Research Literature Review and Policy Recommendations (with Vikash Reddy). New York: Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University, November 2011. http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?UID=1004
  •  “The Community College: The Origins, Impacts, and Futures of a Contradictory Institution.” In Jeanne Ballantine and Joan Spade (eds.), Sociology of Education. 4th ed. Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2011. 
  • “Undocumented Immigrants and State Higher Education Policy: The Contrasting Politics of In-State Tuition Eligibility in Texas and Arizona” (with H. Kenny Nienhusser and Blanca E. Vega). Review of Higher Education 34 (1) (Fall 2010) 
  • “English Further Education through American Eyes.” Higher Education Quarterly 63 (4) (Oct. 2009), pp. 343-356.
  • "Performance Accountability as Imperfect Panacea: The Community College Experience" (with Esther Hong). In Thomas Bailey and Vanessa Smith Morest (eds.), Defending the Community College Equity Agenda (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006). http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?UID=402 
  • "It's Not Enough to Get Through the Open Door: Inequalities by Social Background in Transfer from Community College to Four-Year Colleges" (with Greg Kienzl). Teachers College Record, 108 (2006), pp. 452-487. http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?UID=324 
  • Community College Missions in the 21st Century (edited with Barbara Townsend). New Directions for Community Colleges 136 (Winter 2006). 
  • "Helping Students Enter and Succeed: Access, Success, and Accountability Policies in the Achieving The Dream' States" (with Monica Reid & H. Kenny Nienhusser), Community College Journal, vol. 77 (2006) pp. 42-47.  http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?UID=456
  • "Necessary but not Sufficient:  Higher Education Reform as a Strategy of Social Mobility” (with David Karen). In Gary Orfield & Patricia Marin (eds.), Higher Education and the Color Line.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard Educational Publishing Group, 2005.
  •  "The Evolving Role of the Community College: Policy Issues and Research Questions." In John Smart and William Tierney (eds.), Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research (Kluwer, 2002)
  • "Community Colleges and Contract Training: Content, Origins, and Impacts" (with Marianne Bakia). Teachers College Record 102 (February 2000). http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?UID=55 
  • "Mass Higher Education: What Is Its Impetus? What Is Its Impact?" Teachers College Record 99 (Fall 1997). 
  • "The Implications of the Goals 2000 Legislation" (with Peter Hall). In Kathryn Borman et al. (eds.), Implementing Federal Legislation: Sociology and Educational Policy. Stamford, CT: Ablex, 1996.
  • "Opportunity to Learn Standards: A Sociological Critique." Sociology of Education 68 (May 1996). 

·    The Contradictory College: The Conflicting Origins, Impacts, and Futures of the Community College (State University of New York Press, 1994). Winner of the Willard Waller Award of the American Sociological Association for best book in sociology of education in years 1994-1996.

EDPA 4025: Higher education policy

This course is provides an introduction to major policy enactments in higher education both in the United States and abroad. The policies reviewed include provision of different types of colleges, private higher education, tuition and student financial aid, affirmative action, quality assurance and performance accountability, and curricular and degree standardization (Bologna process). The course examines the forms, political origins, implementation, and impacts of these policies. The aim is to help students develop a broad and deep understanding of the main directions of - but also limitations to - higher educational policymaking in the United States and abroad.

ORLH 4040: The American college student

Reviews the demographic data about student access to college, the determinants of social class, race and gender differences in college access and choice, and the influence of colleges upon students.

EDPA 4047: Politics and Public Policy

What are the relative roles of research and politics in determining public policy? One tradition considers public policy from the perspective of rational decision-making and considers research to be a source of objective enlightenment. A second tradition considers public policy as the outcome of battles among organized interests and portrays research as a weapon exploited by the powerful to further their own ends. This course addresses these and other issues as they relate to each of the stages in the policy process and as manifested in contemporary education policy debates such as that around school choice.

EDPA 5023: Policymaking for effective high school to college transition

The course examines policymaking efforts by the federal and state governments to facilitate the movement of students from high school to college and their effective preparation to meet college requirements. The policies reviewed include student financial aid, the TRIO and GEAR UP programs, state common core curriculum standards, accelerated learning programs, and state longitudinal data systems. The course examines the content of these policies, their political origins and implementation, and their impacts. The aim is to help students develop a broad and deep understanding of the main directions of - but also limitations to - national and state policymaking with respect to high school to college transition.

Centers and Projects

Center on Chinese Education
Website: http://www.tc.columbia.edu/centers/coce/

The Center on Chinese Education, Teachers College Columbia University (CoCE) is aimed at contributing to a better understanding of education in China and to educational exchange between the United States and China. It seeks to achieve this mission through three categories of activities: research and development, education and training, as well as outreach and exchange. These activities will draw upon the historically special relationship between Chinese education and Teachers College, the interests and expertise of the faculty at Teachers College, as well as expertise and resources outside of Teachers College. Major funding for the Center's activities is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation and the Ford Foundation.

Contact: Mun C. Tsang
E-mail: mct27@columbia.edu



Community College Research Center
Website: http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/

The Community College Research Center (CCRC) was established in 1996 with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and is housed within the Institute on Education and the Economy (IEE). The main purpose of the CCRC is to frame critical questions concerning the fundamental purposes, problems, and performance of community colleges, and chart a course for strengthening scholarly research on the future of these important institutions.

'When we speak of the transition from school to work, we will be speaking more often of the community college,' says Professor Thomas R. Bailey, who is also Director of the Center. 'When we speak of retraining our nation's labor force, we will also be speaking more often of the community college.'

The Center has taken a broad and comprehensive view of the community college over the course of the grant, but focused primarily on the roles of community colleges in workforce and economic development. The specific purposes of the Center are to: (1) synthesize existing research on the roles community colleges have been playing and the extent and determinants of their effectiveness within those; (2) formulate and answer new research questions on important issues confronting the community college sector; (3) begin exploration of alternative policies and directions for community colleges; (4) attract new researchers to the field and solidify a network of community college practitioners and scholars; and (5) suggest directions for data collection. The Center draws on expertise from a national advisory panel of community college practitioners, policy makers, and research scholars. The Center funds fellowships to doctoral students who are interested in writing dissertations on community college issues. The fellowship recipients work at the CCRC and participate in research projects. Reports of research findings, occasional papers, and non-technical Briefs are available through the CCRC website, or for a nominal cost.



Latina/o and Latin American Faculty Working Group
Website: http://www.tc.edu/latino-ed/